Donald Wittkowski

Usually, the only white stuff found on the Ocean City Boardwalk is the beach sand that flakes off the feet of summer sunbathers while they are rushing to grab some ice cream or a slice of pizza.
But on Sunday, Boardwalk strollers navigated through slippery patches of slushy snow left over from Saturday’s storm that turned the city into a winter wonderland...

Ed Wismer’s striking oil painting of the legendary Sindia gives you the sensation of being there on that fateful day in 1901, when the four-masted ship ran aground in Ocean City.
It’s as if you can hear the ship’s sails flapping in the howling winds, feel the spray of the angry ocean on your face and see the crew members as they frantically tried to save the Sindia in its death throes...

Rita Mae Brown, social activist and bestselling author of more than 50 books, believes that even ordinary people can become “elite” simply by doing one thing – reading.
In wide-ranging and occasionally humorous remarks that touched on politics, the media, popular culture and gay rights, Brown urged a roomful of her fans Thursday night to emulate some of the world’s most accomplished leaders by picking up a good book...

Ptl. Brian Teeney was on the lookout for drivers talking on the cellphone, and it didn’t take long before he spotted one on Wednesday morning.
Teeney had his Ocean City Police Department SUV parked on the shoulder of the intersection of 14th Street and Bay Avenue for just a few minutes when a man in a black pickup truck drove by with a cellphone held up to his ear...

A steady stream of people entering the lobby of the Port-O-Call Hotel on Tuesday night kept handing bags of toys and other gifts to Beth Pruzinsky.
Pruzinsky, in turn, would stack the gifts on a pile of hundreds of toys that was growing higher and higher with each minute...

The folks at the Ocean City Historical Museum and the Ocean City Free Public Library must have some serious clout up at the North Pole.
Not only were they able to get Santa Claus to make a personal appearance Sunday at the annual Ocean City Community Center Holiday Festival, they also snagged Mrs. Claus.
Santa made a dramatic entrance, shimmying and dancing his way down the stairs – sorry, no chimney was available – to greet all of the adoring children eagerly awaiting his arrival...

For one brief moment Saturday, 84-year-old Tom Eddis was a kid again.
The model trains that chugged around the railroad tracks on the stage of the Ocean City Music Pier rekindled fond memories of the Christmases of his youth.
He recalled that his now-deceased older brothers, Joe and Bill, had a train set that was taken out of storage just once a year...

Sisters Grace and Jamison Stepp wanted to be among the first spectators to see Santa Claus, so they grabbed some prime seats on the sidewalk near the start of Ocean City’s Christmas Parade.
They were hoping they would be close enough to draw Santa’s attention, perhaps even letting him know some of the gifts they would like to find under the tree on Christmas morning...

Taking a cue from similar tourist attractions in the Poconos, an Ocean City real estate developer unveiled tentative plans to transform the heart of the Boardwalk into a year-round, indoor waterpark and resort hotel costing $250 million to $300 million.
Justin Flood, a lifelong Ocean City resident whose family has been in the local real estate business for decades, outlined details of the proposed project in public remarks during a City Council meeting Thursday night...

The Port-O-Call Hotel, the pink-hued grande dame towering over the Ocean City Boardwalk since 1966, decided to rebrand its traditional restaurant three years ago to give it some contemporary flair.
What emerged was Adelene Restaurant, whose striking décor now serves as a model for other seashore-inspired architectural updates throughout the hotel, explained Glenn Losch, the general manager of the property...

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Scott Aragno and his children Maddie, 7, and Scottie, 3, of Ocean City, stopped down at the Humane Society of Ocean City, 1 Shelter Road, Friday afternoon to check out some of the animals in need of a home.
“We are thinking about adopting. We come by every so often,” Aragno said.
The family visited the cat room. Cats and kittens of all ages, colors and sizes, filled a large room, where the felines were able to roam free and play with toys and hop into cat houses...